Eric Church Co-Wrote ‘We Were’ — But Keith Urban Had No Idea

"It got sent to me, not by Eric, but by someone who finds songs for me," Urban tells Bobby Bones on iHeartRadio's The Bobby Bones Show. "I didn't know he was a writer, which was really cool, because it wasn't until we recorded the song, it was all done, and I found out after the fact.

"I found out and I called Eric, and I was like, 'Dude, I just cut this song.' He was thrilled," Urban adds. "I said, 'I had no idea that you were a writer on it.' He said, 'Well that's even better, because it means you really loved the song.' I do. I really love the song."

Urban and Church's professional paths have crossed before, most notably with the 2013 collaboration "Raise 'Em Up." It's a song that, as it turns out, Church may have sang even if Urban didn't invite him to be on it.

"I said to the writers, 'Eric’s going to come and sing on the song,'" Urban tells SiriusXM's The Highway about the duet. "They said, ‘That’s fantastic because we were going to pitch it to him next if you passed on it.’”

Per Urban, his recording of "We Were," co-written by Church, Ryan Tyndell and Jeff Hyde, might be followed by another intentional collaboration. "I’d love to do something again with him," Urban adds in his SiriusXM interview.

"I’d like to do something very different from what he and I do singularly," Urban explains, "and some other kind of fusion thing."